| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley: Am I in earnest? Oh dear no! Don't you know that this is a fairy
tale, and all fun and pretence; and that you are not to believe one
word of it, even if it is true?
But at all events, so it happened to Tom. And, therefore, the
keeper, and the groom, and Sir John made a great mistake, and were
very unhappy (Sir John at least) without any reason, when they
found a black thing in the water, and said it was Tom's body, and
that he had been drowned. They were utterly mistaken. Tom was
quite alive; and cleaner, and merrier, than he ever had been. The
fairies had washed him, you see, in the swift river, so thoroughly,
that not only his dirt, but his whole husk and shell had been
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: Madame Grandet called to her husband as soon as she heard him stirring
in his chamber, and said,--
"Grandet, will you let Nanon light a fire here for me? The cold is so
sharp that I am freezing under the bedclothes. At my age I need some
comforts. Besides," she added, after a slight pause, "Eugenie shall
come and dress here; the poor child might get an illness from dressing
in her cold room in such weather. Then we will go and wish you a happy
New Year beside the fire in the hall."
"Ta, ta, ta, ta, what a tongue! a pretty way to begin the new year,
Madame Grandet! You never talked so much before; but you haven't been
sopping your bread in wine, I know that."
Eugenie Grandet |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Elixir of Life by Honore de Balzac: pillars that they had not room to bend the knees, which never
bent save to God. Charming peasant girls, in the basquina that
defines the luxuriant outlines of their figures, lent an arm to
white-haired old men. Young men, with eyes of fire, walked beside
aged crones in holiday array. Then came couples tremulous with
joy, young lovers led thither by curiosity, newly-wedded folk;
children timidly clasping each other by the hand. This throng, so
rich in coloring, in vivid contrasts, laden with flowers,
enameled like a meadow, sent up a soft murmur through the quiet
night. Then the great doors of the church opened.
Late comers who remained without saw afar, through the three
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